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In late 2010, a local soldier who had just returned home from Afghanistan stopped in to the Thrifty Peanut Book & Media Warehouse in Bossier City. He told owner Jason McLaughlin he had very little reading material while he was overseas, and had to resort to reading shipping cartons and cereal boxes.

McLaughlin says that's what prompted him to start the Books for the Troops campaign. In the first year, 18,000 books were donated. This year, there are more than 46,000, weighing over 36,000 pounds. And through a partnership with Soldier's Angels, a national non-profit dedicated to sending care packages to U.S. troops all over the word, Thrifty Peanut has a way to get those books to our military men and women.

Soldier's Angels started with the grand-niece of General George Patton. She had a son overseas, and she sent him care packages regularly. He kept requesting more, because some of his fellow soldiers weren't getting anything from home. That sparked a large-scale care package-sending campaign, which then grew into the non-profit organization.

On October 20 at 9 a.m., there's a big book pick-up event going on at Dan Tyl Storage on Benton Road in Bossier. Mayor Lo Walker will be on-hand for the festivities, and Bossier Police Department motorcycle officers will escort two large trucks down I-20 to the Texas state line, where they'll head to the Soldier's Angels warehouse in San Antonio.

From there, they'll get packed into boxes and sent to the troops with other necessities, like toiletries, laundry bags and snack packs.

The shipping for all these books is in the tens of thousands of dollars, and only a few thousand in donations has been raised. If you'd like to help, visit either location of Thrifty Peanut -- 2206 Benton Road in Bossier or 5839 E. Kings Highway in Shreveport -- or go to the Thrifty Peanut website.

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